Looking for a Green Bean Casserole recipe using REAL ingredients? Try this vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, paleo-friendly recipe that tastes the best! (Jump directly to the recipe.)

You know that feeling you get when your mom pulls out those drawings you did when you were in junior high and showing them to your friends and loved ones during the holidays? “You were so talented! Look at this!” she’ll exclaim loudly, while you try in vain to climb under the sofa to hide. Well that’s sort of how I feel when I look at old blog posts of mine. Yet somehow, recipes and posts do pop up, especially when it’s seasonal hits like my vegan green bean casserole. Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I thought it was time for me to update that specific recipe. It was already a vegan and gluten free green bean casserole, so I thought, since I’m redoing, why not make it grain free and paleo friendly? I know there are tons of people out there could use an allergen friendly and paleo thanksgiving recipe. Not only that, but the shifts I did with the recipe actually make it BETTER. Yep. This is one is a keeper.

If you’ve read this blog before, you’ll know that I don’t have many food restrictions. Other than a minor lactose intolerance that I power through when I have a craving for ice cream (though, after recently getting a review copy of Kelly Brozyna’s Dairy Free Ice Cream cookbook, that might not be an issue either!) I’m extremely lucky to be able to eat most anything I want. But I also know that many people out don’t have the luxury, and that means I often strive to make food that is allergen friendly. But, because I CAN eat gluten, dairy, grains and such, it also means I know those foods taste like. When I develop a recipe it has to stand up to the original. Or, ideally, be better than the original.

So trust me when I say that this vegan, gluten free, grain free, paleo friendly green bean casserole is good, nay great. Not only is it significantly better than the canned mushroom version (duh) since it’s made from real ingredients but it’s actually better than the milk and cream version that I had originally based the recipe on. The nuts like cashews and almonds play so well together with the earthy green beans and the mushrooms in this dish. In fact, this recipe pretty much has taken a permanent place in on my Thanksgiving dinner table, a table full of omnivores that eat flour, grains and dairy goods. And, in the mountain of food that gets produced for the celebratory Thanksgiving, it’s the one that usually gets finished. How’s that for testament to this fantastic dish?

Vegan Green Bean Casserole, gluten free, grain free, paleo friendly

By Irvin Lin

The classic green bean casserole is part of nearly every Thanksgiving potluck in middle America. This recipe reworks the canned green bean and mushroom soup version into an easy from scratch recipe that is friendly to most people with food restrictions, other than those with nut allergies. Even better though, is that the final dish tastes BETTER than any green bean casserole you have ever had. Truth. Bonus, the dish isn’t really a casserole, as it’s made on the stove, which frees up room in the oven for other dishes.

There are a few things to note about the ingredients. The cashews need to be raw and need to soak overnight in water, so plan accordingly. The almond meal or flour can be purchased or just take plain unsalted almonds and grind them up into a powder in a food processor. Arrowroot flour is a thickener that is gluten free and paleo friendly. If you don’t have any on hand, you can substitute cornstarch, glutinous rice flour or tapioca flour in its place. You can even substitute regular flour if you aren’t gluten sensitive.

Directions1. Place the cashews in a medium sized bowl, and cover them with water until they are completely submerged. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Once the cashews have soaked, drain them and rinse thoroughly. Place the cashews in a blender or food processor and add 1/2 cup of water. Process on high speed until pureed into a thick cream consistency.

2. Line a baking sheet with a double layer of paper towels. Place the shallot slices in a medium bowl and sprinkle the almond meal, arrowroot flour, ground pepper, and salt over the shallots. Toss to evenly coat the shallots. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a large sauté pan or skillet on high. Once the oil starts to shimmer (but before it starts to smoke) reduce the heat slightly to medium high and add the coated shallots and fry them, stirring constantly, until they are golden brown, about five minutes or so. Once they are golden brown, move them to the baking sheet.

3. Add 2 more tablespoons of oil to the sauté pan or skillet and turn to medium heat. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until they are brown, about 5-7 minutes depending on how thick the mushrooms are. Pour the mushrooms and any accumulated liquid, into a heatproof bowl.

4. Add the final 2 tablespoons of oil to the sauté pan or skillet and turn the heat to medium. Add the onions and cook until they soften about 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the green beans, thyme, bay leaves, pureed cashews and vegetable stock. Cook, stirring frequently, until the beans are slightly tender but crisp in the center, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and liquid and continue to cook for another 5 minutes, or until the green beans are tender and the sauce has thickened. Once done, season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove the thyme and bay leaves before plating and sprinkle the fried shallots over the green beans before serving.

Irvin, I wouldn’t have believed it possible to make green bean casserole, vegan, gf and paleo until I saw the amazingness that is this recipe. It looks gorgeous. Thanks for including my recipe too. Sharing!

Beautiful recipe! I have a quick question: I am making this over an hour before I plan on serving it because I’m taking it to a thanksgiving dinner at someone else’s home. Can I reheat in an oven? Or do you have any particular suggestions for reheating? Thank you!!

Good question! I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t be able to warm it up in the oven. But I’m not 100% sure because I’ve never had to do that. If I were in your position, I’d put it in a casserole dish uncovered, without the fried shallots, and heat the entire thing up in the oven set at 350˚F for 15-20 minutes – maybe longer depending on how cold the dish is to statr.

While it’s heating up, I’d probably warm the shallots up on the stove with a touch of oil. That way they keep crisp. But if the stovetop is already in use (prime real estate during Thanksgiving) I don’t think it’ll be a problem just sprinkling the shallots over the dish before you reheat. I’d just keep them separate from each other in the beginning because the steam and heat from the green beans might make them a bit soggy.

Hi! Can’t wait to make this for Thanksgiving! Have you ever used cashew meal instead of soaking and blending the cashews? Trader Joe’s just started carrying a raw cashew meal and I was wondering if I could use that instead as the base for the cashew “cream”. Any idea if it would work, and if so, how much to use?

That so funny that you asked that because I was JUST at Trader Joe’s today buying stuff for Thanksgiving and I saw that! Sadly, I’ve never used cashew meal before but a quick google search said it might be a good substitution. Try boiling some water and placing 1 1/2 cups of cashew meal in a medium size pan. Turn the heat to medium and whisk in some of the water until a paste forms. Keep cooking it over the heat, until it becomes creamy, thinning it with more water if it seems to thick. Once it’s creamy, use it in place of the cashew cream that I made above.

Just as a caveat, I’ve never done this before, so I can’t guarantee it’ll work! But if it does, that would definitely cut down on the soaking beforehand. If you try this method, be sure to come back and let me know how it turns out!

I tried the raw cashew meal, and in retrospect I still should have blended it like you would whole cashews. It came out kind of gritty, and never really got creamy. Overall it was still good, even though I cheated and bought Aldi brand French fried onions that just happen to be vegan! I might try this again for Christmas and put the raw cashew meal and water in the blender this time. 🙂

This recipe was delicious, the sauce was extra creamy and was a hit at my thanksgiving dinner. I would suggest slightly blanching the green beans prior to pan frying them in order to get that tender texture.

That’s a great idea. I personally like my green beans a little more on the crisp side than the tender side but if you like your beans more tender, a quick blanch in boiling water will definitely speed up the cook time! Thanks for sharing and Happy Thanksgiving!

I made this for Christmas dinner and my omnivorous extended family loved it- even asked for the recipe! So happy to have found a new use for cashew cheese and a healthier version of 2 sticks of butter, 1 quart of cream green bean casserole 😉

Just made this, and it is delicious! I absolutely adore the shallot crunch. I used 1 Tbsp of oil (vs 6) for frying, and somehow only needed about 1/2 of the cashew cream; I saved the rest for later. Great recipe Irvin, I’d love to see you do more vegan recipes! 🙂

Are you allergic just to cashews or to nuts in general? I might recommend trying almond instead of cashews but if you are allergic to nuts, you can try substituting sunflower seeds. I’ve never done it myself so I can’t tell you how the final product would turn out but I know people have done it in the past and sun butter is a pretty common substitution for peanut butter and nut butters so I think sunflower seeds might work.

I would love to make this recipe for my daughter who is allergic to nuts this Thanksgiving. We are not vegan, so can use flour and milk, etc. Could you suggest some substitutions for the cashews and almonds? Thank you!

Hi! If you aren’t vegan, you can definitely skip the cashews and almonds. Skip step 1 completely and instead just add 3/4 cup of heavy cream in place of the pureed cashews in the final step.

When frying the shallots, skip the almond flour and the arrowroot starch. Instead, just toss the sliced shallots in 1/4 cup all-purpose flour along with the salt and pepper, then fry like the instructions state!

You can definitely use extra virgin olive oil. That’s what I use in my house! Just make sure to keep an eye on it as it has a lower smoke point than regular olive oil. Not a big issue but you don’t want your oil to burn!

As for onions, I cook with yellow onions mostly. I’d skip the sweet onions because that will give a sweet taste to the dish. White onions are fine as a substitute but I prefer yellow for cooking and white for raw dishes like salsa.

And yes you can use vegetable broth. They are pretty interchangeable but broth tends to be seasoned with salt, pepper and herbs, while stock is more straightfoward vegetables or meat/bones if you are making a non-vegetarian stock. In the case of this recipe, it shouldn’t matter, but definitely underseason when you cook if you are using broth and taste the end result and adjust your seasoning then!

Made this last year and it was a huge hit!! Thank you. Coming back to it this year with a double recipe. I, too, am wondering about doing a lot of it the day before. Did the shallots early and will try to crisp them up tomorrow. Also going ahead with the mushrooms. Any other insight into how much I can do today to be delicious and easy tomorrow?

Just found this on pinterest while at the store! Looking forward to making this delicious treat for the family. I looked through the comments and found a lot of helpful input for adjustments. Going to prep tonight and finish tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving!

What an excellent dish! I made it two times this Thanksgiving holiday. First, I served it to non-vegans and it they were amazed. The second time I brought to a community event run by Akron Cooking Coalition, where all food is vegan; the casserole was demolished in less than 5 min. I have committed this recipe to memory, and I look forward to making this habitually. Thank you!

I’ve made this twice so far. Usually in x3 quantities. Fantastic. I usually do extra shallots. For those of you wondering about reheating… I usually make it a hour or more before thanksgiving dinner in a casserole dish, and then I heat it up in the oven for 30 minutes before its served at the designated house. Everyone adores it.

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